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Mediterranean Appetizer - M'nazaleh

April 13, 2010 - 12:43pm

Yippee

Mediterranean Appetizer - M'nazaleh

Hi, all:

I'm trying to recreate a Mediterranean appetizer M'nazaleh, which has tulip (crunchy like pickles) and marinated grilled eggplant in it. Could anyone suggest an authentic approach to prepare these ingredients? Thanks in advance for your input.

I understand the flower petals taste like cucumbers, and cucumbers go well with rye and other breads. Tulip is a short season.

About the spices... Lets see... for 4 large eggplants, sliced grilled brown on each side and arranged into a serving dish: salt, a couple of chopped garlic cloves, a little bunch of parsley, a few mint leaves, some basil leaves, plenty of fresh ground pepper and topped with 125ml (half a cup) olive oil.

In other words, put what you like on them fresh from the garden. I'd be tempted to add a few pickled capers (the ones with stems) instead of salt and some fresh tulip pedals in season (doesn't that sound so exotic!) or a finely sliced section of skinny cucumber. Sliced air dried bacon on the side. Radish sprouts cut at 2" high. A bowl of cottage cheese.

Mini

After reading and seeing Daisy's entry below, wedges of lemon and a dish of olives.

They seem to be presenting it as Lebanese/Persian in origin. I suppose herbs used for general marinade could include parsley, coriander, tarragon, mint, maybe chives. Recipes I've come across for Lebanese pickled aubergine/eggplant, however, refer to them being pickled with walnuts and garlic, sometimes also pomegranate seeds, sometimes parsley.

Seems like the final dish has pickled cucumbers in it, as suggested by Mini, and some definitely pink things, plus olives. I have read that the final mix can also contain tomatoes and walnuts.

I'm interested in the tulips here. I have been reading John Evelyn's Acetaria__A_Discourse_of_Sallets from the C17 and was particularly impressed with the number of edible flowers, nuts, wild herbs and flower buds he recommends adding to salads.

I've been thinking about flowers I could use from my own garden and as well as the flowers of most herbs, have thought about violets, nasturtium, marigold and roses (apparently you have to cut off the green 'heel').

With the tulips, if M'nazaleh was originally a Persian dish, I'm thinking that they would have historically used species tulips rather than the cultivars. What do you think? We were thinking of planting the species, anyway, as despite being smaller they naturalize better.

Many thanks indeed, Mini. I found a basic list online, but yours is a much better one.

Obviously it advises caution on tulips. However there are flowers on here that we have in the garden that I would never have thought were edible, but which this suggests have really interesting flavours or uses, like Day Lily and Gladiolus.

Pickled turnips are pink and crunchy and commonly served with Mediterranean food. I have never made them but am having a Mediterranean theme at an upcoming party so I just might look for a recipe! I'll post here if I find something.

I found an almost identical turnip recipe which has equal parts vinegar to water (for 4c of liquid) with 3 Tablespoons of pickling salt dissolved into it. The pink color comes from a beet (like the above recipe) and this Syrian recipe says if one doesn't have a fresh beet, a pickled one will do. Also ready in ten days but the family eats them sooner. (It's like warm bread... the looks are too enticing to wait.)

I also have a recipe for pickled nasturtium pods. Eliza Smith's 1739 cookbook The Complete Housewife (could also be Compleat.) The taste is peppery capers. As we planted lots of Nasturtium flowers this year, I'll be trying this one.

Take one cup of the water, dissolve 1.5 Tbs into it and cover the pods to stand one day.

Drain and repeat step one. Three times over 3 days.

Dran and put into a sterile pint jar with the splices (all optional) and cover with the vinegar. Cover with a non-reactive cap and let stand room temp for a week. Then store in the refrigerator or a cool dark place, will keep a year or more. Makes 1.75 cups.

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